An Empirical Study Of Task-Driven Chunk Based Approach To The Teaching Of College English Writing

As English writing is increasingly recognized as one of the most important skills in verbal communication,colleges have begun to stress on the improvement of students' English writing ability.However,the teaching of English writing in college is confronted with many difficulties,such as students' lack of interest and the ineffective teaching method.Consequently,English writing teaching fails to meet the requirement of college syllabus or to achieve the designated objectives.With the proposal of chunk-based and task-based approaches,more and more researchers have focused on the improvement of English writing teaching.However,there is an insufficient amount of research in the integration of chunk-based approach and task-based approach.This study is designed to be addressed two research questions.First,what are the effects of task-driven chunk based approach on the subjects' writing performance? Second,what are the effects of task-driven chunk based approach on the subjects' perceptions of English writing? To answer the research questions,a quasi-experimental study was conducted,which lasted for 16 weeks.Sixty sophomores from two parallel classes of non-English majors in XX University of Liaoning Province participated in the study.Tests and questionnaires were employed to collect data.Firstly,the two classes sat in a pre-test,which showed no significant difference between the two.Secondly,after teacher's intervention in the experimental class,a post-test was given,which showed a significant difference between the two classes.Thirdly,questionnaires were handed out to the experimental class.The major findings of the study are as follows.Firstly,task-driven chunk based approach can improve the subjects' English writing performance,which can be illustrated by the post-test.Secondly,most of the subjects have a positive attitude towards the approach,which has enhanced the subjects' interest in English writing.It is hoped that this study can offer some implications for the teaching of college English writing.